...and you know who you are, I challenge you to find the bad news in last night's game.
Wright and Reyes clubbed the ball all night. 5 ribs for Wright. 3rd straight game with a jack. He's on pace for 202 RBI right now.
Reyes had a shot at a natural cycle in his 4th AB but settled for a single. Reyes' hammy looked fine.
Duaner Sanchez made a successful return, and while his velocity topped at 91 (he was in the 94-95 MPH zone in '06), he was mixing pitches and, most importantly, pitching.
Pelfrey threw 7 shutout innings, and, in the 3rd inning, worked his way out of a bases loaded, one-out jam against their 3 and 4 hitters withougt giving up a run, and without getting rattled.
Oh, and BTW, Pelfrey threw 7 shutout innings.
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Add in a rested Castillo playing excellent defense and stealing a base, and Heilman working through another potential meltdown and the gloom is lightening a bit.
Interesting point by Howie and that new guy on the Fan last night: they were saying that this is a team still looking for an identity. I agree but can't figure out what that might be...
Oh yeah, and Pelfrey threw 7 shutout innings.
Solid game all around, nothing negative at all. BUT...
It was the 4-10 Nats, owners of the worst record in baseball. So anything less than a sweep (or at least 2 out of 3) is a big negative.
Everyone played well last night, pitching and hitting. I was most pleased with Sanchez.
My gripe is that everyone starts getting all worked up that "the mets are back" and "pelfrey's an ace", every time we do nothing more than beat down scrub competition. This series against the Nats tell me nothing about whether this team is legit or not. Let's talk when the Mets consistently start winning series against the Phils, Braves, D-backs, Pads, Red Sox and Yanks. Then I'll believe this team is as good as its supposed to be.
Until then I'm stuck listening to how Boston is the sports capital of the world and NY sucks. The Pats, the Sox, now the Celts, BC, and even the Bruins..
Wright is the real deal. Good to see him pick up where he left off last year, he could be looking at MVP season.
Let's talk when the Mets consistently start winning series against the Phils, Braves, D-backs, Pads, Red Sox and Yanks.
With all due respect to my esteemed colleague, I think this is the wrong standard.
Winning teams need to play the best competition even, and clean up against the weaker opponents. Then, when the pressure's high and the chips are down, they need to best the big opponents down the stretch. But that's months away, and the club we have now will have greatly evolved by the time Sept. and Oct. baseball come calling.
Right now, we need to be consistently beating teams like the Nats and Marlins (check so far), and playing teams like Los Bravos and the Phils even (not doing it yet, but a very small sample size).
Come back to me after the Phils series. If we're 1 or 3 games over .500 at that point (depending on whether we split the last two or sweep the Nats), we'll have evened the score with the Phils and we'll be in the right place.
Keep in mind: the Fish are leading the division. Do you really expect them to be leading in Sept.? As for the teams that we're really competing with, we're ahead of them right now (just games in hand over the Phils, but still).
Oh, and on Pelfrey, I don't know who you're hearing that's calling him an "ace." No one on this blog, or even out there on the net, as far as I can tell.
But he had a solid, borderline-dominant performance, and that's the first time that I can think of where that's been true.
It gives you a taste of what he might be down the road: a front line starter. And it shows that he can be a contributor as a back-of-the-rotation guy now, and not just dead weight.
If our 24 year old 5th starter can even be a .500 pitcher this year and keep us in games, while we season him and give him the opportunity to participate in a pennant chase and (hopefully) playoff baseball, that's a win all the way around.
Of course, Livan Hernandez can probably still be had if we want to spend some chips for the 2-4 win improvement he might provide in the 5th starters role, assuming Pelfrey's not on a accelerated growth curve.
And BTW, Pelf threw 7 scoreless last night.
And I don't even know why I'm talking about Livan, I can't wait to send Pelf back to New Orleans so we can get Orlando Hernandez back in the rotation.
From today's Post: Do the Mets have a new ace?
It certainly looked that way in a 6-0 blanking of the lowly Nationals last night at Shea Stadium as Mike Pelfrey cruised through seven innings to his second win in as many starts this season.
In any case i take your point about mopping up the gimmes and playing tougher teams at least even for now, but my point is that if this team wants to make the playoffs it is going to have to fare better than average against in-division rivals Braves and Phils, two of the tougher teams in the NL. Furthermore, if they expect to advance in the playoffs and make it to WS they are going to have to beat the best.
I agree that you have to win the gimmes at this point. But I can't get fired up about a team that wins the gimmes but can't compete against the big boys.
Also granted, if the Mets can keep players off the DL I don't see how anyone in NL east can touch them. But watching this team and injuries is like constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. As soon as we get one person back from DL two more go on it.
Bottom line is that if the Mets sweep the Nats but then go on to lose 2 out of 3 to Phils this weekend, everyone will be bewildered wondering what happened, since they thought the Mets "turned the corner". Same for Pelf, if he gets roughed up against Phils. My point is that while you must win the games against weak teams like the Nats, you really can't draw many conclusions about the true ability of your offense or pitching against such weak opponents. So it wouldn't be shocking to me to see that turn of events.
On the other hand, if we take at least 2 of 3 from Nats and then go on to win 2 of 3 from Phils this weekend, then I'd say we are definitely starting to look good.
BTW, I'll give Willie some credit: he moved quickly to stick Castillo at the bottom of the lineup where he belongs.
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